Manufacture of tubes or hollow bodies.



PATENTED JUNE 28, 1904. BI PI I MANUFACTURE OF TUBES 0R HOLLOW BODIES.

no MODEL.

wnwcseca APPLICATION FILED APR. 27, 1908.

UNITED STATES BALFOUR FRASER McT'EAR, or RAINHILL, ENGLAND.

PATENT OFFICE. f

'MANUFACTURE OF TUBE S OR HOLLOW BODIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 763,566, dated June 28, 1904.

Application filed April 2'7, 1903.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BALFOUR FRASER Mc- TEAR, engineer, a subject of the King of England, and a resident of Rainhill, in the county of Lancaster, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in or Connected with the Manufacture of Tubes or Hollow Bodies, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference mainly to the manufacture of tubes and hollow cylinders 0r cylindrical bodies of steel or other hard metals or alloys; and it .has more particularly for its objects and effects to provide an improved method of operating upon or manipulating tubular bodies in the process of manufacture.

The article operatedupon consists of a hollow body with comparatively thick walls, which have to be reduced in thickness, the reduction producing a corresponding increase in diameter, and for convenience this article is hereinafter generally called the billet.

The article produced in this machine may be a tube, cylinder, boiler-flue, or'other hollow body of the finished size and thickness required, or it may constitute a partly-manufactured article which has to be subsequently operated upon or treated to produce the finished article required.

1n the drawings, with the aid of which the invention will be described, Figure 1 is aside elevation, and Fig. 2 a cross-section, showing a machine in which the manufacture can be carried out.

In the drawings, 1 is the billet being operated upon while in a highly-heated state,.it being revolved and rolled internally and externally between an internal small mandrelroller 2 and a large external supporting or anvil roller 3 at a high velocity-say from about one thousand to two thousand peripheral feet per minute the operation being one of hot spinning. The roller 3 is the driven roller. The mandrel-roller 2 is adjustedto: ward the other roller, 3, during the operation of rolling by bearings 10, moved up and down in the main frames or housings 50. The means for moving the bearings consist of the screw-threaded shaft 11, secured rotatably in a recess made in a plate 12, secured to the top Serial No. 154,595. (No model.)

of the bearing 10. This shaft passes through the top of the main frame 50 and ends in a square portion, to which is secured a worm gear-wheel 13, meshing with a worm on a shaft 14, suitably secured on the frame. A hand-wheel 15 is secured to this shaft. By this means the bearings 10 have sliding movement in the frame independent of each other. Prior to the rolling action when the billet 1 has been placed in position in the machine on the anvil-roller 3 the mandrel-roller 2 is threaded longitudinally through the billet 1 and under the bearings 10. Outside the billet there are external side supporting-rollers 4, supported by hinged arms 5, which act in connection with the part of the billet at or near its maximum diameter, viewed in relation to the vertical plane of the machine, and follow its increasing diameter as the billet blooms in the mill.

Referring now to the method of manufacturing and controlling the billet longitudinall y in the machine, while being revolved and rolled it frequently happens through the billets being sometimes slightly thicker at one end than another or by being hotter or softer in one part than another they will travel longitudinally in the mill while being spun and run into the bearings 10 and stop the machine. Now the method according to the present invention of preventing this longitudinal travel of the billet and maintaining and controlling it asregards its position longitudinally in the mill consists in pressing on one end of it a greater degree than another when the longitudinal travel takes place. This variable pressure is obtained by having separate adjusting or operating gears in connection with the two bearings 10 and moving down that end of the mandrel through the bearings 10 toward which the billet is moving longitudinallyat a more rapid rate or a greater degree than the other, according to the direction of travel of the billet. By watching the billet while spinning and operating upon it, as described, when it commences to travel in the one or other direction it can be stopped and kept floating longitudinally in the machine and without its end ever coming in contact or running into the bearings. Under normal conditions the two bearings 10 are moved down at the same rate by the operators as the billet increases in diameter and blooms.

Having now described my invention, what 5 I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In rolling tubes or hollow bodies circularly, the method of effecting the prevention of longitudinal travel of the body being rolled, and

I controlling the longitudinal position of same while being rolled, consisting in inserting a mandrel in said hollow body and then eii'ecting pressure upon the hollow body by pressing upon the ends of the mandrel to a greater or less degree whenever it is noticed that a longitudinal travel of the billet takes place.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

BALFOUR FRASER MGTEAR. Witnesses:

JOHN H. WALKER, SOMERVILLE GooDALL. 

